Peace of Mind
by Stealthy Tiger
Summary: Barney and Robin are married and living the life that they never though they would have. Until one day, they return home to find something that they never expected.


_**A/N: Welcome readers! After a semi long break from writing, I am back. This is my first story for HIMYM. Let me know what you think. Please Review!**_

_**-A.**_

"Barney what time are you getting done work tonight?" I asked my husband moving the phone to my other ear while typing out the my latest report for work.

"Probably about 6. Do you want to head to McLaren's tonight, or do you want to have dinner at home?" he asked. I could hear the shredder being used from across the phone.

"Home. We went last night. I just want a quiet night tonight. Honestly work has been kind of hectic lately and Patrice will not leave me alone for more than 5 seconds at a time."

"Okay, but take it easy on Patrice. She helped us get to where we are today, just remember that."

"I know. I love you! I will meet you at home at 6."

I hung up the phone looking around my office at World Wide News. I had to say my new co-anchor job was suiting me well. I liked being one of the big names around the building. After marrying Barney, I gradually became settled into a comfortable life that included a job that I loved and a husband that I loved more. The few months since the wedding have given us time to settle into our routines and get used to the idea of being husband and wife. As far as I'm concerned, we are adjusting better than expected. Barney's panic attacks all but ceased after about a month.

Throughout the rest of the day, I worked in my office catching up on paperwork before my on air broadcast. I took a cab home and walked down the street to the Chinese place for food before heading home. As I was walking back from picking up the food, I spotted Barney getting out of a cab at the front of our building.

"Barney," I called waving to him, "Wait up."

He turned at the sound of my voice giving me a big toothy grin before stopping at the front door to our building and holding the door for me. "Hello beautiful. How was your day?"

"Relatively good. How was yours?"

"Better now that you're here."

I smiled at the comment, "When did we get so much like Ted?"

"I don't know but I am going to bet we pull it off way more than Ted ever could," Barney replied giving me a long sought after kiss.

"Truth."

We stopped on the way to the elevator for the mail and went up to our floor. The first thing I noticed as the doors of the elevator opened was a shattered vase in the hallway. For many reasons, this set off alarm bells in my head. For one thing, broken vases are not typically found in random hallways. I looked toward our door down the hallway and noticed it was standing wide open.

"Barney look," I said pointing toward the open door.

"What the…" he said walking toward the door for a closer look.

We reached the doorway, looking inside our apartment. Lamps were knocked over. Paintings were missing from their place on the walls. Drawers were empty, their contents strewn all over the floors.

"Who could have done this," I asked rhetorically.

"I don't know but it looks like they wasted no time rummaging through everything. No doubt they found something of value."

I looked around again a thought coming to my mind. I whispered, "Barney what if they are still here. What if we caught them in the middle."

His eyes opened wide. I could see hundreds of calculations going through his mind. I could see the internal debate going on within him of what we should do next. I pulled the gun from my purse and checked the magazine. Full. I walked around the apartment checking the closets, rooms, and under the bed, any place where someone could hide with Barney following behind me. "As far as I can tell, we are alone."

Barney regained control pulling out his cell phone, "I will call the police."

Half an hour later we were being questioned by the police. _What was missing? What did we see? Do we know anything about who could have committed this crime._ Our answers were vague and incomplete. We didn't know anything and we were still in somewhat of a shocked state.

It was toward the end of the interview with the police that Barney stood quickly as if he just remembered and did not wish to waste time saying, "We have a tape of the robbery." He went to the back closet where the audio visual components to the apartment were kept. He came out with a flash drive in hand. "They took the computer, but I have it set up that the footage backs up to a server for 24 hours. Here is the footage. I hope that it helps."

"Thank you Mr. Stinson. We will let the two of you know if we find anything. As for the apartment, I suggest you find somewhere to stay tonight until you can get the door fixed tomorrow." The police officers left the apartment taking the footage and several bags of evidence.

I walked toward Barney looking him over. He looked concerned and lost within his own mind. I pulled him into a hug and he wrapped his arms around me. "What are we going to do?" I asked him my face pressed into his chest, the sound of his heart calming me with every beat.

"I don't know," he replied his voice low and distant. "We should probably stay with Marshall and Lily tonight."

"Or we could stay with Ted, too," I suggested.

"Ted is probably with Tracy tonight anyway. I don't want to deal with their new relationship smugness right now. They are too cutesy. It is nauseating," he replied with a show of disgust.

"Didn't we just say we were like that?"

"Yeah but we are not nauseating. We are awesome instead. True story."

"Okay Lily and Marshall it is. Let's get some clothes and figure out a way to keep the door closed overnight before we go."

The trip to Marshall and Lily's apartment was a quiet one. Neither one of us wanted to talk much. We were still processing everything. Barney texted them to let them know we were coming and that we would explain when we got to their apartment.

Our knock on the door was answered immediately by Marshall and Lily with Marvin on her hip. "What's wrong," they asked simultaneously.

"Can't we just come visit our dear friends?" Barney asked feigning innocence.

"No," Marshall said shaking his head.

"Someone broke into our house," I conceded.

Lily came over to us into a hug. "Oh sweetie, are you guys okay?"

"We are fine. We were at work at the time. Our door was wide open when we got home. We called the police. They didn't have much to say, but they told us to find somewhere to stay until we can get the door fixed. They have the tapes from inside our apartment," Barney explained.

"I can't believe this. You hear about it all the time, but you don't expect it to happen to someone you care about," Lily replied almost in tears.

"We are okay Lil. We are just tired and hungry." I walked over to the couch to sit down. I rested my head back, staring up at the ceiling. We have some leftover lasagna from dinner if you guys would like some," Marshall said walking to the refrigerator.

"Thanks guys. That would be great," Barney replied walking to the kitchen to help with the food and to grab a beer. He threw me one from across the room. I caught it easily and opened the bottle quickly for a much needed drink.

After eating, we made a make shift bed on the floor with the couch cushions and some blankets before saying our goodnights to Marshall and Lily. We laid there in the darkness of the familiar apartment listening to the traffic outside the building. For the longest time, I lay silently watching the shadows play across the ceiling. My head resting on Barney's chest, his arm wrapped protectively around me. "How could this have happened?"

"I don't know. I am still having a hard time wrapping my head around it. All of our stuff is ruined, stolen, or otherwise displaced. It is as if someone messed with our entire lives in one night," Barney replied, tracing circles onto my back. His touch was electric and soothing. "We should try to get some sleep. We have a lot to do tomorrow."

"Yeah, you're right. I love you Barney."

"I love you too, Scherbatsky."

The next morning we woke early after a restless night of sleep. I don't think either of us slept all that well. We had Lily's special pancakes for breakfast. After a series of hugs and assurances that everything would end up alright, we left the apartment and went back home to start cleaning up. Both of us called off work for the day after explaining the situation to our respective bosses. They had no trouble with us taking the day off under the circumstances.

After a quick call to a local company, the worker assured us they would come to fix the door by the end of the day. They promised to make it a priority considering we needed the door fixed to comfortably stay in the apartment. The man was more understanding and gracious than I would have expected, but I am not complaining.

We walked into the apartment, standing on the platform overlooking the place. It was still in as much disarray as the day before. Looking at it again in such a condition, refreshed the dread and fear I felt upon first seeing it. "I'm not going to lie. I was hoping that it was just a bad dream," I said looking at Barney, taking his hand into mine.

"Maybe if we say that enough we might actually believe it," he replied looking over to me tiredness evident in his expression. A mixture of emotions were playing across his face which I could not quite make out. "Let's try to get this place back to normal."

We spent the better part of the day going room to room replacing all of the upturned items to their original place. A list started to form consisting of all the items which were missing. The list was needed for the police and the insurance company. We stopped midday for lunch and returned right back to work. Neither one of us wanted to see the apartment that way any longer than we had to which was all the motivation we needed to continue cleaning.

A stern knock swung the door toward the wall with a loud crack. Barney and I nearly jumped out of our skin at the sound. We were both understandably on edge. A stocky, brown haired man in paint splattered overalls was at the now open door. "Sorry about that. I should have realized that may happen considering that is why you called me. I apologize."

"That is fine sir. We are just glad you are here," I said going over to shake his hand. "My name is Robin and this is my husband Barney."

"Hello," Barney said simply.

"Hello there. I will get to work right away. It should not take long," the man said putting his toolbox onto the wooden floor of our home.

The man brought a new door up from his truck parked outside of our building. He unhinged the old door and replaced the framing along the outside because of the splintering from being kicked in. The new door looked like the old one apart from the fact that the new door had a dead bolt as per our request for additional security.

After the man left, we finished up with the cleaning and went out to dinner because neither one of us was in the mood for cooking. We went to one of our favorite restaurants down the street. After ordering our entrees and an abundance of scotch, we settled in to talk.

"It has been an interesting two days, hasn't it?" I said bringing the scotch to my lips feeling the smoothness of the drink ease my nerves slightly with every sip.

"Yeah interesting but not in a good way. I like my nights awesome and memorable, but that was not even close to awesome. That was like anti-awesome. It was 'antisome'," Barney said before taking a large swig of scotch, feeling the burn as it slid down his throat.

"At least we are okay," I replied trying to be positive and move on.

He set his drink on the table, leaning in closer to me conspiratorially, "Robin, I have been thinking..."

"That doesn't sound good," I responded sarcastically under my breath.

"We should take some self defense classes or something. We could get started with the martial arts. I hear it can be empowering," Barney stared at me gauging my reaction to his proposition.

"Barney, where is this coming from? You were never interesting in fighting before. The only fight you have ever been in was with Ted, and you weren't even really fighting. You just made it look like you were."

"Robin, we were robbed yesterday…Robbed! That can happen again, but the next time it might not end the same way. We could be home next time, either together or just one of us. Either way we should be able to defend ourselves. I cannot stand the thought of losing you. It is making me crazy. Ever since we walked through that door again I can see all the things that could have gone wrong had we been here or had we walked in on the robbers."

"Barney, I understand that this is scary. It freaked me out too, but don't you think we are over reacting a little. We have a security system. We got everything on tape," I stated trying to be the voice of reason although I had my own concerns racing through my mind with his.

"That didn't help us yesterday, we almost died," Barney shrieking, dramatically sinking farther down into the chair.

"We weren't even home," I responded from across the table, trying to be the voice of reason. I reached across and placed my hand on his trying to comfort him.

"We didn't even have a weapon to defend ourselves."

"I did my gun is always in my purse."

"We are lucky to be alive."

"I don't understand you sometimes. You are not even listening to what I am saying anymore," I replied throwing my hands up in defeat.

"We need to learn martial arts, Robin. Don't be a pill about this." He waved me off already too far gone to be reasoned with.

I allowed my shoulders to relax letting out a defeated sigh, "Fine. We will go learn martial arts if it will make you feel better."

"Thank you Robin. My fists of fury will keep us from harm."

"Somehow I think they will probably cause us more harm, but either way we can agree to protect each other no matter what happens." I can only imagine where this is going to take us.


End file.
